Macedonia’s long and legendary history has been carefully preserved in its museums, the most important of which are in Skopje. The Archaeological Museum takes the visitor on a journey through the millennia, from the Neolithic Age, the Bronze and the Iron Ages, the Classical and the Hellenistic Periods, all the way through to the Roman, Slavic, Byzantine and Turkish periods.

The Historical Museum gives a chronological overview of Macedonian history through the centuries up to the National War of Liberation.

The Ethnographic Museum has a substantial amount of items which are thematically displayed. Finally, the Museum of Natural History showcases

many examples of the indigenous and sometimes odd flora and fauna found throughout Macedonia.

Apart from their permanent exhibitions, FYROM’s museums organize temporary exhibitions and other events, and feature gift shops where tourists can buy certified replicas of Macedonian icons, booklets and other souvenirs.

In addition to the major museums found in Skopje, smaller museums and archives with their own unique collections can be found throughout FYROM’s other cities and towns.

The builders of Ohrid’s ancient theater calculated carefully when they put the building in the very center of the elevated old town. The open theater has a perfect location, as the two hills (Gorni Saraj and Deboj) keep it protected from winds that could interfere with acoustics during performances.

Discovered by accident and later completely excavated, this four-thousand square meter monument to Antique Greco-Roman culture is today used during the Ohrid Summer Festival for performances of ancient tragedies and comedies. It offers a wonderful view of the lake and Mt. Galicica to the southeast.

Skupi

The archaeological site of the Antique Roman city of Skupi is located 3 km (1.8 m) north of Skopje, near the villages of Bardovci and Zlokukani. First mentioned in the year 3 B.C.E. and founded by theDardanians, it quickly developed into an important regional center when the Romans made it the capital of their Dardanian Province.

With the creation of a Christian episcopacy a few centuries later, the city’s economical and cultural importance grew yet again. A disastrous earthquake in 518 C.E. destroyed the city, but later a new town was built on top of the rubble, named Justiniana Prima after its founder, the famous Byzantine emperor Justinian.

Trebenista – near Ohrid

The discovery of the treasures of Trebenista, a village located on the road from Ohrid to Kicevo, was like something out of a movie: ancient graves loaded with gold and silver, burial gifts fit for a king.

The site was discovered in 1918, and the treasures of seven of the graves were removed by Bulgarian soldiers to Sofia, where they can now be seen in the National Museum. Some of the more recent discoveries are in the National Museum of Ohrid and the National Museum in Belgrade.

When discovered, Trebenista’s graves contained hundreds of gold, silver, and bronze vessels and jewelry, many of which had been imported from Greece along with a number of terracotta vessels decorated in Attic black-figure style. It remains today one of the most important archaeological finds in Macedonia, and a vivid reminder of the style and sophistication of past cultures.

The skopians try very hard not to tell the truth but it looks all GREEK to me.